The representation of 2 (4) Esdras (written, according to Schiirer, in the reign of Domitian, A.D. 81-96), while of the same spiritual type, is marked by some striking peculiarities of its own. Among the Jews hitherto the thought of a glorified Messiah had been universally prevalent, but pseudo- Ezra speaks of him as dying after an activity of 400 years, and says nothing of his resurrection. After the death of Christ, the world, he says, shall re- lapse into primeval silence for seven days, ‘so that no man shall remain.’ Then the new world shall be ushered in, the earth shall restore its dead, and the Most High shall be revealed upon the seat of judgment (7*5"-). In contrast to the view pre- sented in the Assumption of Moses, this writer not only sharply distinguishes the Messiah from J” Himself, but also gives a figurative delineation of his person. He is described as a lion rising up out of the wood and rebuking the eagle (i.e. im- perial Rome) for her unrighteousness. While he has been kept by the Most High unto the end in order to condemn the Romans, the rest of the Jewish people shall live happily under his sway until the Day of Judgment (12%), Again he is pictured as a man coming up from the midst of the sea, and flying with the clouds of heaven (1S): Planting himself upon a great mountain (the emblem of Zion), he encounters a mighty host who have gathered themselves against him from the four winds of heaven, and destroys them by the Haming breath of his lips. Coming down from the mountain, he then calls to him another and “peace- able’ multitude (the ten tribes). These figures, it is explained, are used of ‘ this my son’ (13°); and,
although it is not easy to deduce from them a very concrete doctrine of the Messiah’s person, one or two points are sufficiently clear. The writer dissociates himself from the view current in the Judaism of his time: according to him, the Mes- siah is in no sense an earthly king. At the same time it is plain, from the representation he gives of him as dying, that he does not conceive him as possessing essential Deity. Neither is he depicted as an ordinary man: he comes up out of the sea, ‘as it were the likeness of a man,’ and flies-with the clouds of heaven. As fire melts wax, so his voice burns those that hear it (13%). It would therefore seem that in this apocalypse the Messiah is conceived as a created being of a quite peculiar kind, who appears as a man among men for the destruction of Jehovah’s enemies and the restora- tion of His people, although not as an earthly potentate. The Most High has reserved him for long (137%), until the moment appointed for his coming. ‘No man upon earth can see my son, or those that be with him, but in the time of his day’ (18°), Then he shall be revealed (7%), and his appearance will herald that revolution which shall destroy the power of Rome and bring together the scattered tribes of Israel.
It is clear from the Shemoneh ‘Esreh—the chief prayer which it was the duty of every Israelite to repeat thrice daily, and which, although it attained its final form only after A.D. 70, must be considered much more ancient as to its groundwork—that the hopes expressed in these apocalypses were cherished by the nation as a whole. Prayer is offered for the gathering of the dispersed, the rebuilding of Jeru- salem, the revival of the Davidic kingdom, and the restoration of the sacrificial service.
6. The Messianic expectation in Hellenistic Judaism. —If in Palestine the hope associated with the advent of the ideal Davidic king had not altogether waned in presence of the political and religious liberty enjoyed under the Hasmonean dynasty, the people were at least content to wait for the rise of a new prophet (1 Mac 14). But in Egypt, where they were still under Gentile dominion, the Jews seem to have cherished more warmly the hope of a Messianic deliverance. Thus about B.c. 140 the oldest Jewish portions of the Sibylline Oracles predict the approach from the East of a God-sent king, who will take vengeance on his adversaries, and make war to cease through- out the earth. Heathen opposition to the temple will collapse under the stroke of the Immortal, whose children will live in peace and quietness under the protection of His hand. At sight of this the Gentiles shall accept God’s law, and bring gifts to the temple. So shall be inaugurated the reign of peace. God will set up an eternal king- dom over all mankind, with Jerusalem as its central seat, and under the just sway and judicial control of the prophets (3-74), Although the Messiah is not named, and although the main stress of the prophecy is laid on the triumph of the Law, the introduction of the figure of the Messianic king into the writer’s delineation of the future is nevertheless very significant in view of the abstract spiritualism affected by Alexandrian Judaism gene- rally, and already traceable in the LXX. No less remarkable is it that even a speculative moralist like Philo, in his delineation of the happiness in store for the righteous, should avail himself of the image of the Messianic king. According to this writer, all adherents of the Law will be liberated ‘at a given sign on one day.’ Led by a Divine appearance, visible only to the delivered, they will rebuild the ruined cities, and the desert will be fertilized (de Hasecr, 8-9). On their deliverance the dispersed Israelites will stream together to a certain place: the indefiniteness here is probably